Blue Snowball

[Stub Mandrel]

Phew this is a tough target - it's SOOOOO bright yet SOOOO small!

I managed, by doing a reverse stretch, to get it to show the internal 'butterfly' shape and HLVG did great job of turning the cyan ball green. <thinks: could I get away with claiming this is Neptune?>

Processed to show all the wonderful coloured stars in the same area, the snowball was a big, fuzzy, featureless blob. I decided to mask in the anti-stretched version so its a tiny blue dot about 10-o'clock from centre. This feels like cheating... but a photo darkened so it shows this detail only has about six or seven stars in it!

 

[michael8554]

Hi Neil

FLO put the HST up for sale occasionally, you'd stand a chance with that - worth an offer?  :->

Michael

[Ruud]

Ah, the blue snowball, a very pretty object that does it name justice. It is amazing how blue it looks in even a small telescope like a 6" reflector.

One of my favourites!

Thanks for the image. It's beautiful.